Alder was quickly discovering the woman who'd rescued him - or rather, was in the process of rescuing him - was rather an interesting sort. The kind of person he'd have enjoyed running into under almost any other circumstances; not that he wasn't enjoying it now, exactly, just it was rather hard to be yourself when you were busy bleeding all over everything. He gave a lopsided grin at her declaration that it didn't matter what Oli did, just as long as she could dump him off on her sooner rather than later. The amusement carried him through as he drew himself upright, or as upright as he could manage in the current moment, and sipped at the mead she offered; a second later he took a swig, knowing the trip to the inn wasn't going to be very pleasant no matter what. He handed it back to her, and off they went. Even in his haze of pain and blood loss he watched the teleporting with interest; he'd gained a number of interesting skills since his arrival in Shaman, but none with quite the same visual power. At least, he thought, not yet.
His slumped form straightened as much as he could manage in the saddle as Elina called back, nodding at her. It made his head spin, though, and he stopped rather quickly. Soon they were at the tavern's door, and Elina was knocking. She called through the door, and Alder sighed with relief. He was almost home.
Olive drew the door open not long after, her face unusually pale and eyes rimmed with dark circles. Clean bandages stood out starkly on her right cheek and the left side of her throat, but relief lightened everything about her.
"Thank you, thank you," she cried, looking a bit tearful. Torram and Cypress joined her in a moment, both of them looking a little worse for wear. Cypress' eyes were notably red rimmed and she kept sniffing, holding her body at an awkward angle. Something, it seemed, had gone down while he was away, and it hadn't been very pretty. Olive and Torram rushed forward to help Alder dismount. He wobbled on his feet a little, going pale as his feet touched the ground.
"It's quite late," Cypress said as they began limping him towards the inn. Badger transformed into a small lioness, slipping inside ahead of the others. "Are you in need of a place to stay?" She sniffed, gesturing towards the doorway. A young man stepped forward. "Jake here can take care of your horse, if you like, or if you prefer to care for her yourself he can show you the way to the barn. We'll get the room ready for you in the meantime. Anything you need, it's on the house."
"What she said," Olive said, pushing Alder lightly into the nearest chair. "Thankfully Danny left us some healing lotion last time he was here. We've already asked him to stop by for the rest of us tomorrow."
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